COVID budget impasse halts aid to test and treat uninsured

With an urgent funding request stuck in Congress, a federal agency says it can no longer cover COVID tests and treatments bills for uninsured people and will stop taking claims at midnight Tuesday.

“The lack of funding for COVID-19 needs is having real consequences,” Martin Kramer, a spokesman for the Health Resources and Services Administration, said in a statement. “We have begun an orderly shutdown of the program.”

The Uninsured Program is an early casualty of the budget impasse between Congress and the White House over the Biden administration’s request for an additional $22.5 billion for ongoing COVID response. In operation since the Trump administration, the program reimburses hospitals, clinics, doctors and other service providers for COVID care for uninsured people, whose numbers total about 28 million. Kramer said the program will next have to stop accepting claims for vaccination-related costs, after April 5.

Shutting off the spigot of federal money could create access problems for uninsured people, as well as consequences for the rest of society.